As we begin to repeat ourselves in the 1st Official Game Hint thread for 2011, I thought it might be interesting for archival purposes and as a reference - to discuss the differences between the unofficial hints/clues and the Official Game Hints.

Would anyone like to give this one a try? First of all, when did we start receiving Official Game Hints directly from FRC? How far back do the official ones go and what were they? Before that, the hints/clues were unofficial and Dave Lavery was behind most of them, right? We also have had some FIRSTers/CD members who created their own hints/hoaxes/chaos, right? What were those and who were the pranksters?

This might be information that will help new members who try to make sense of the excitement and anticipation leading up to Kick off. It will also give us something to do.

I've enjoyed the hints as far back as I go which is not far enough and I sure don't know the history behind any of it.

2003: the quadratic formula, used as the scoring formula. (not quite sure if that was official or unofficial via Dave's signature)
2004: Lines from the song, "Stairway to Heaven". (Same note as 2003)
2005: Riddle.
2006: Riddle.
2007: Picture of a scored game piece--up close, so only the inside edge of the game piece and the diamond-plate circle with the number 5 on it showed.
2008: 3 hints: IR receiver board, GPS coordinates of the Tortoise and Hare statue in Boston, and "Vets Hurdling First Tetras", which was an anagram of the password to the manual, minus punctuation.
2009: First a picture of an opah, or moonfish, then a riddle.
2010: 2 CAD models of field parts
2011: See hint thread; reversed album cover.

Fakes: Various rumors that turned out not to be true, but there is one classic one that was fairly close in some aspects: A leak was claimed before the 2001 game.
Greg Needel's hoaxes were the sort of "it's out! Ha, ha, fooled you"; 2009/2010.

Lavery red herrings: Numerous. Random sayings, faked pictures, comments about whack the Billfred being the game, you name it. Epic red herring was the morse-code signature spacing for the 2010 season. And yes, some herrings are red when Dave posts them. Typically 3-4 or more per season.

The real question is has anybody ever learned anything actionable from a game hint or red herring.

In my experience, no.

I always advise teams I'm associated with to ignore them and have a safe and restful holiday season. However, I also include the link to those hints and discussions in the same email because the sadistic side of my loves the fact that some people just can't help themselves. I get a kick out of seeing the self-torture despite having my best advice right in front of them.

Wrong to do, I know. But exceedingly amusing for me.

Enjoy the holiday herring, no matter what part of the RGB spectrum you observe this time of year.

__________________technology, innovation, and invention without a social conscience will only allow us to destroy ourselves in more creative ways

There is one thing that occurred to me this morning... With such a huge history of "unofficial" hints and clues, and the amount of attention everyone here pays to Dave's posts and Bill's blog, it would be incredibly easy for them to drop something innocuous in their posts that would completely twist the way people look at the official game clues. For example, I've heard a lot of speculation around stairs after the official clue, linking the fact that the backup singers were standing on stairs to various statements/pictures made over the past few months. That could be a complete red herring, designed to keep us from figuring out what the clue really means.

Oh bah humbug, guys. It is a terrible thing to enjoy silliness, cleverness, and fun. Especially during the holidays. That's why I never ever think about, quote, or watch any Monty Python movies after the 21st.

Seriously.

Jane

P.S. Thanks, Eric. If anyone has any specifics to add, that would be awesome.

That's why I never ever think about, quote, or watch any Monty Python movies after the 21st.

But it's not got much Spam in it...

.

__________________ "I know what you're thinking, punk," hissed Wordy Harry to his new editor, "you're thinking, 'Did he use six superfluous adjectives or only five?' - and to tell the truth, I forgot myself in all this excitement; but being as this is English, the most powerful language in the world, whose subtle nuances will blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel loquacious?' - well do you, punk?"
- Stuart Vasepuru, 2006 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest

Official hints began for the 2003 season, Stack Attack, IIRC.
.........

Actually, in 2002 FIRST gave us the BOM for the raw materials to build the goal in advance of the 2002 game. They did not say it was a goal, but we figured out what it was from the purchasing list. We did not build it of course and had no idea what would go in these goals. But it sure was fun thinking about what it could be.

So in the end, even that giant hint did not really help prior to receiving the full game. It was just fun.

Actually, in 2002 FIRST gave us the BOM for the raw materials to build the goal in advance of the 2002 game. They did not say it was a goal, but we figured out what it was from the purchasing list. We did not build it of course and had no idea what would go in these goals. But it sure was fun thinking about what it could be.

So in the end, even that giant hint did not really help prior to receiving the full game. It was just fun.

The field BOM definitely continued after that as well. I know I've looked over a few, and my first year was 2004. I want to say the last one was in 2007 because I remember there being a carriage bolt on the list, and I know we used those to attach the plates to the end of the spiders.

(We were never smart enough to figure out what we were supposed to build though.)